2 Answers

First, your systems HD SATA port I/O speed is only 1.5 Gb/s (SATA I). So you will need to find a drive that runs at this slower speed.

Second, you will need to think through how much more life this system has and does the investment worth it. Don't forget the newer OS's tend to push the limits of these older systems. I do recommend you max out the RAM this system can support while you're opening the system.

OK, You've decided you want to move forward.

Putting in an SSD in my opinion is not worth the expense and many have issues in these older system. I would recommend putting in a SSHD (hybrid drive). Seagate make a nice one and you gain the benefit of the SSD it has for fast boot ups and yet you get the depth of a traditional HD.

Sadly you'll need to return the unit as it won't work in your system. Again, the issue is the SATA port in your system is only SATA I (1.5 Gb/s). This SSD runs at SATA III (6.0 Gb/s)! As I stated in my first answer here SSD's are a problem in the older systems, they have problems with the newer generation SSD units. If you can locate a fixed speed SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) SSD that would work. They are getting very hard to find. I would rethink this.

"How do you determine though how much time a system has left?" Experience, most people want the get the newer OS's at some point Apple will cut back the support for the older systems. The next release of OS-X (11.x) will likely drop the Core 2 Duo systems and besides I don't think you want a slow experience the newer OS's running on older hardware will give you.

I think i have to disagree with the compatibility issue. According to my research the SSD's are backwards compatible. On the crucial website, i also did a system check and it said that it would work. I agree, i might not be able to get the full speed, but it would still work (as far as i understand). The crucial website also listed your recommendation though (hybrid drive). So i think the question is on how much i am willing to spend for the upgrade?! Have you ever installed a hybrid drive in an older machine? Is there a significant increase in performance?

We have over 200 MacBook Pro's in the field using them. We gave up on SSD's as we encountered issues with compatibility which is why I strongly recommend SSHD units. While this system only has a 1.5Gb/s throughput the deep cache of the SSD in the SSHD will give you a fair amount of zip.